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All Music Guide:
Hip-hop's influence spread far and wide during the '80s, as witnessed by the growth of the international scene during the following decade. Standing beside brilliant DJs from Japan (Krush) and France (Cam), Russia's DJ Vadim has proved to be the most popular advocate of hip-hop to come out of the former Soviet bloc, triggered mostly by the fact that he moved to Britain early in life. Upon arrival, he set up his own Jazz Fudge Records later that year to issue a demo he called Derelicts of Conformity (by Son of Seth). He finally released the recordings early in 1995, as DJ Vadim's Abstract Hallucinating Gases EP. Britain's top hip-hop and acid jazz DJs began playing the record and, after being scouted by several labels, Vadim signed a contract with Ninja Tune. Several EPs released during 1995-1996 showed him to be quite an experimentalist, working heavily with static and noise, never content to let his ideas meander past the two- or three-minute point. His first LP, U.S.S.R. Repertoire (The Theory of Verticality), was released in late 1996.
The following year, Vadim began working on acts for Jazz Fudge; he issued the compilation Sculpture & Broken Sound, then debuted his own Andre Gurov project with the album A New Rap Language. His next project, the highly touted remix album U.S.S.R. Reconstruction, appeared in 1998, and was followed a year later by U.S.S.R.: Life from the Other Side. His third U.S.S.R. record, The Art of Listening, dropped in 2002. Relatively quiet during the early 2000s -- his only full-length release was a mix album, Stereo Pictures, Vol. 3 -- Vadim nevertheless reappeared in 2007 on BBE, with a production album titled The Soundcatcher, as well as the Live in Brooklyn mix CD on Mothergrain. He was back on BBE for his next 12", Got to Rock/Black Is the Night, at the end of 2007 and remained there for his next two singles, 2008's Talk to Me/Like the Wind and 2009's Hidden Treasure/Saturday/Soldier. The full-length LP U Can't Lurn Imaginashun was issued in May of 2009. Vadim has also worked as the Bug, with Kevin Martin, Dave Cochran, and Alex Buess.
Wikipedia:
DJ Vadim is a prolific DJ and producer, born in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), raised in London and currently residing in both New York and Berlin, whose music combines hip hop, soul, reggae and electronica. He has been described as "one of the few artists creating genuinely new work in the Hip-Hop field" and an artist who "cannot be ignored".
Career
In 1994, Vadim founded his own independent record label, Jazz Fudge, but signed to Ninja Tune the following year, before his current label BBE, in 2007. Aside from DJ-ing and producing, he has also worked as in A&R and promotion, as well as a radio presenter on the BBC's "Around The World In Eight Relays" programme.
Throughout his career he has worked with a variety of musicians, singers and groups, including DJ Krush, Stevie Wonder, The Roots, Prince, Public Enemy, Dilated Peoples, Kraftwerk, Sly and the family stone, Fat Freddys Drop, Super Furry Animals, and Paul Weller. He is also known for having worked with a number of unsigned artists who later went on to find commercial success.
In addition to his regular album releases, he has also recorded under the names "Andre Gurov" and "Little Aida" and has appeared as a member of the various artists project The Isolationist. He is also the DJ and producer for Spanish hip hop group 7 Notas 7 Colores, and, in 2001, was nominated alongside them at the Latin Grammy Awards.
His album, USSR: Life From The Other Side featured Scratch Perverts, Iriscience (from Dilated Peoples), Blade and Yarah Bravo. To promote the record, Vadim put together a live group - The Russian Percussion - consisting of Mr Thing (turntables), Killa Kela (beat box), Blu Rum 13 (MC), John Ellis (keyboards). The tour consisted of 200 live shows taking in twenty four countries throughout Europe and North America.
His central project for 2005-6 was DJ-ing for the hip-hop group One Self, with MCs Yarah Bravo and Blu Rum 13. The first One Self album, Children of Possibility was released on September 20, 2005.
He has made many remixes from The Cure, Erykah Badu, Alice Russell, Paul Weller, Prince, CL Smooth,
On average he performs 170-180 shows a year and has played in over 63 countries.
Style
DJ Vadim composes both music for MCs, singers and poets and soulful instrumental hip-hop beats. In both cases, certain stylistic trends emerge;
Dominating rhythmic percussion, heavy use of drum programming which are sometimes broken or stuttering, heavy bass and synthesizer use.Organic, soulful touches often using studio musicians, with undertones of roots reggae and ragga and driving, hip-hop drum orchestration.Original sounding compositions, arrangements that fuse many genres from hip-hop and electronica to soul and reggae.Heavy use of ethnic sounds, including Asian, South American and African.
